Oxfam sex scandal: Charity shops hit by 123 sexual harassment claims

The Oxfam sex scandal has intensified with further allegations of misconduct by charity workers emerging. More than 120 cases of sexual harassment in Oxfam charity shops were reported over the past nine years, The Daily Mail reported.

The revelation is the latest blow to the international charity's reputation after it was hit with claims that workers paid prostitutes for sex while delivering aid in Haiti in 2011.

After the Sunday Times story emerged, Oxfam's deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, resigned over the handling of the sex scandal.

She said she was "ashamed" and took full responsibility for the charity's response to the workers' behaviour.

A whistleblower told Channel 4 News that the charity has faced multiple misconduct allegations in recent years, including alleged abuse of underage prostitutes by aid workers in Haiti.

Helen Evans, the charity's former safeguarding chief for six years, said that 286 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse were reported by Oxfam over the past nine years.

Of those incidents, 110 took place abroad and 123 in the charity's UK shops, she said. 52 of the incidents, around one-fifth of the total, took place in 2016/17.

Within a year of starting her job at Oxfam, Evans said she realised the extent of the problem. She heard of a case of a shop manager who allegedly forced a young volunteer to drop assault charges against an adult male who reportedly assaulted them both.

Evans revealed that Oxfam had not carried out criminal record checks on around 23,000 volunteers who staff its 650 charity shops.

She told Channel 4 News that she was concerned "for those in senior leadership positions who knew the scale of what we were dealing with and in my view did not adequately respond to that."

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has said that the government will cut its funding to Oxfam if the charity fails to show "moral leadership."

"It doesn't matter you've got good safeguarding practices in place. If the moral leadership at the top of the organisation isn't there, we cannot have you as a partner," she told the Andrew Marr Show.